Kogi: SDP accuses APC of prejudice ahead of Supreme Court judgement

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has described the actions of the Kogi state government and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the Supreme Court Judgement on the November Kogi State Governorship Election.

The party also accused the Kogi State Government and the APC of taking to social media on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, to celebrate a purported victory in the case.

SDP candidate, Muritala Ajaka, is challenging the victory of Governor Usman Ododo on the November 11, 2023 governorship election.

Whereas the election petition tribunal as well as the Appeal court have decided the outcome in favour of Ododo, Ajaka rejected the appellate court’s verdict, vowing to reclaim what he described as his stolen mandate at the Supreme Court.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, Director, New Media and Spokesman of the Muri/Sam Campaign Council, Isaiah Ijele, appealed to the Justices of the apex court to thoroughly examine the 2023 Kogi governorship case and maintain public confidence in its ability to deliver impartial and well-reasoned judgement.

Ijele said: “If you recall, we raised an alarm before the Tribunal Judgement that something is fundamentally wrong, that just a few days before the judgement, we’re not even aware that the judgement is going to be on the May 27. We saw it on media.

“It was the same APC people, the Udodo group, that were celebrating their victory, knowing the day of the judgement. As a spokeperson of the Campaign Council, I called our lawyers and they were not informed. They were informed on Sunday that the judgement indeed is going to be on Monday, May, 27.

“And the judgement went in the favour of Udodo, the APC. They celebrated the judgement.

“We appealed to the Supreme Court. They just filed their defence, not up to 48 hours, and they are the same people who are giving the date of the judgement to be on August 16, already in favour of Udodo. We have the copies of them that I have sent to many of the media houses. We don’t want to take it for granted. Something is fundamentally wrong with our judicial system.

“Justice in Nigeria is now too expensive. And we have people in government, who is the Udodo in government, occupying the Lugard House, approving billions upon billions for different projects that we don’t know, and we have not seen them.

“We want to let the judiciary know, the Supreme Court, know that we believe, as campaign council, as also members of civil society organisation, they are going to uphold the rule of law, and they are not going to bastardise our case on the authors of technicalities. Nigeria constitution is very important in Africa.”

Ijele stated that the tribunal for the Bayelsa state governorship election that was held
same day with Kogi poll has affirmed the importance of providing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) evidence to prove allegation of over-voting. He said the SDP has provided enough BVAS evidence to prove it case.

A Chieftain of the SDP, Ahmadu Alade, urged the apex court not to jettison the importance of BVAS while delivering its judgement.

According to him, tax payers money was used to purchase the technology and at such providing BVAS evidence is as much as providing physical witnesses.

“As it stands today, we are still going back to that orthodox method. The reason I said orthodox method is that the moment BVAS was introduced, it became an innovation to eradicate what we’ve been passing through. But that is not happening. We are still asked to go and produce witnesses.

“Now, if you said you purchased BVAS to help correct the abnormalities of electoral practises that was going on before, what is now happening. Everybody is going back again that we should go and start calling witnesses from their polling unit, which we know definitely all the witnesses are always scared of appearing. And sometimes they will say these witnesses, even though they are appearing, they don’t allow them to cover their face.

“They open their face, they try to make sure that they expose them to this politician. And when these people will be kidnapped, when these people will be dealt with, nobody says anything. Even if their family comes to cry out, nobody says anything.”